Food Plate (Debate?) How the Healthy Food Plate gets criticized.

In June the US Department of Agriculture, unveiled its revamped food pyramid with a slick new modern design, simplified food guide called “MyPlate”. At first glance, it is easy to tell its design intended to make all in the food industry happy by having an assumptive place on the chart through generalized titles, i.e. Protein = Fish, Meat, Poultry & possibly eggs. There is also the four notably portions of colored slices of the pie. Fruits look smaller than protein. Then again protein could be the same or even larger than fruits. Ok, vegetables, definitely larger than grains, no wait maybe they are equal? No, no I got it! It’s one of those eye-mind visual tricks. Vegetable is to grains as protein is to fruit with a little milk on side. Um…. can you say yuk! Sorry but the idea of a glass of milk with fish as protein, fruits, vegetables and grains as healthy meal is nauseating. So it makes you wonder was it designed with political intent catering to the satiate the appetite of the food industry or as a genuine get healthy guide because we care about public health issues, the ever-increasing number chronic disease cases and the obesity crisis in America. Now since all the major food groups are present none should have reason to debate, right? Wrong. Yesterday, nutrition researcher Walter Willett, chair of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues disclosed their version of what a healthy food plate should look like. In an article written by Deborah Kotz of the Boston Globe, she quotes Walter Willet as saying in the press conference yesterday that the food plate is a “step in the right direction” but it is less informative as a guide with implied suggestions for meal consumption. Might I add the knife is missing??? Harvard’s version clearly delineates its portions of the pie and also added descriptive details of what kind of foods should be consumed as well as which ones to avoid. The USDA does give details that are available on their website but not on their chart. To lend deeper insight on the politics and criticisms in charting healthy foods to consume the Boston Globe article also quotes Marion Nestle, New York University nutrition professor and the author of “Food Politics”. Marion Nestle compares Harvard’s plate to the USDA’s, “while it took care of “some of the ambiguities of the USDA version,” it contains some “nutritionally annoying” things such as not allowing for healthful sources of dairy like fat-free milk or low-fat yogurt. “I agree that milk is not an essential nutrient,” Nestle added, but wondered why people were told to limit their intake even of low-fat dairy foods to one to two servings a day."
It makes sense that nature designed milk provisionally as a life sustaining source only for the newly born. If the nutrients are killed off during the pasteurization and homogenization process then having the fat removed is not going to turn it into a health food. Milk in its purest form is a natural perfect whole food, nutrient rich and a life sustaining food source. Certainly intended to serve the offspring produced by the mama and that's all I'm saying.

I just have to point out that Harvard's chart includes in the lower left corner a little running man icon with the words “Stay Active” next to it. Now that is smart. Whichever chart you decide to follow, if any, make certain to stay active, listen to your body, have reverence for life in all its forms and stay a little hungry at certain times throughout the day especially before bedtime.
 
Kaizen Holistic Health
Stacy Scibetta, CHHC, AADP, RYT